UN calls for early resolution to feud between Iran, Britain

March 30, 2007|By FROM NEWS SERVICES

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council expressed "grave concern" Thursday over Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors and marines and called for an early resolution of the escalating dispute. But Iran's chief international negotiator suggested the captives might be put on trial.

As the standoff drove world oil prices to new six-month highs, Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, reportedly sought to calm tensions by urging Iran to let a Turkish diplomat meet with the detainees and to free the lone woman among the Britons.

Tensions had seemed to be cooling a day earlier, but after Iran angered British leaders by airing a video of the prisoners and Britain touched a nerve in Tehran by seeking UN help, positions hardened even more Thursday.

Iran retreated from a pledge by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that the female sailor, Faye Turney, would be released soon. Mottaki then repeated that the matter could be resolved if Britain admitted its sailors mistakenly entered Iranian territorial waters last Friday.

Britain's Foreign Office insisted again that the sailors and marines were seized in an Iraqi-controlled area while searching merchant ships under a UN mandate and said no admission of error would be made.

With Britain taking its case to the UN, Ali Larijani, the top Iranian negotiator in all his country's foreign dealings, went on Iranian radio to issue a warning.

He said if Britain continued its current approach, "this case may face a legal path"--a clear reference to Iran prosecuting the sailors and marines in court. "British leaders have miscalculated this issue," he said.

The Security Council's statement was a watered-down version of a stronger draft sought by Britain to "deplore" Iranian actions and urge the immediate release of the prisoners, primarily because Russia opposed putting blame on the Tehran regime, diplomats said.